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Susan K. Neely, President and CEO, American Beverage Association, NW Washington, DC writes:

The beverage industry agrees that the health of our nation’s schoolchildren is of the utmost importance (“Dumping the junk,” Sept. 8).
In fact, while some are sitting back in our nation’s capital simply talking about change, our industry is making it happen right now in schools in Colorado and across the country.
A little more than a year ago, our industry teamed with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a joint initiative of the American Heart Association and the Clinton Foundation, to develop national School Beverage Guidelines. These guidelines remove full-calorie sodas from all schools and provide students with a range of lower-calorie, nutritious and smaller-portion beverage options. It’s all part of a broader effort to teach children the importance of a balanced lifestyle.
Just one year into the three-year implementation process, we’ve already cut calories from all beverages in schools by more than 40 percent. And we’ve reduced full-calorie soft drinks even further. So we are ahead of pace in making meaningful change in our schools.
Furthermore, while Ms. Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and Mr. Groginsky of Colorado Children’s Campaign suggest that parents are “fed up,” we have found a strong majority of parents support providing low-calorie and high nutrition choices for their kids. Our calorie-based School Beverage Guidelines give students a range of choices that help them learn how to balance calories consumed with calories burned. It’s no surprise then that our common-sense guidelines are supported by 89 percent of pediatricians and family physicians, as well as 82 percent of parents, according to a Public Opinion Strategies survey.
We encourage your community to learn more about the guidelines by going to www.schoolbeverages.com. While implementing the School Beverage Guidelines has been a challenging and costly task, our industry is committed to making it happen.
The bottom line is we’re not just talking about addressing school nutrition. Our industry is making it happen — right now and for the future.

This letter has not been edited.

READER COMMENTS

whoopdedoo

I saw Ms. Neely's testimony in front of a congressional committee this week and I could only shake my head and ask, "What took you so long?'

Susan,

Uh Oh, you used the name Clinton, prepare yourself for the sh&t storm!!

I very much like the idea of self-policing and social responsibility by an industry, but it goes without saying that the action of the beverage was not voluntarily but was a preemptive strike against government regulation. It probably will be some time before the beverage industry realizes that kids also drink soft drinks when they are not in school. I wonder why she says that making the beverages healthier is such a challenge. And by costly I presume she means the bottom line because kids may not get so addicted.

do you really think any kid in school is looking at the new choice as being good for them? From my kids at home all they have said is how stupid it is and want to know why someone else gets to make the choice for them.

and to karl cheny the moron. grow up

8:41 I will tell you why someone else made a choice for your children; it is because they are children. As a child, you do not get to choose when to go to bed, when to get up, when to come home, what to eat for dinner, what you can watch on TV, etc. And the fact that you do not realize this really makes me doubt your abilities as a parent. Seriously, you come off as the type of parent who lets their kids run wild. I hope you can afford a good lawyer because you are going to need it when your kids appear in juvenile court because of your utter failure as a parent.

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